In the field of weapons, one major concern is proper aiming of the target of interest. In the prior art, there has been a number of aiming accessories, such as lasers, sites, flashlights or other accessories which can be mounted on firearms. Most of these accessories use various forms of locking screws, captive screws, nut and bolt clamps or other similar techniques to clamp the accessory to the weapon, as opposed to a latching mechanism which would safely lock the accessory to the weapon. Examples of such prior art accessories are given in U.S. Pat. or patent applications Nos. US 2001/0027620 A1; US 2001/0045046 A1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,662; 5,584,137; 5,941,489; and 6,565,226.
As can be appreciated, the just-mentioned aiming accessories present a number of caveats. Accordingly, such accessories can not be readily mounted on and detached from the weapon. In most cases, such mounting and detaching require the use of specific tools, or of both hands. Therefore, the weapon user can not simply grip the aiming device with one hand and readily mount it on his weapon in order to proceed to a precise triggering.
Other related prior art documents also present significantly different types of attachment methods to weapons or involve weapons that do not have a standard rail which can be interfaced with aiming accessories. Examples of such prior art accessories are given in U.S. Pat Nos. US 2002/0007581 A1; US 2002/0100204 A1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,707,772; 4,777,754; 5,040,322; 5,727,346; 5,816,683; 5,822,905; 6,318,014; and 6,574,901. The problem of such prior art devices is again the cumbersome mounting process as well as the bulkiness of such devices. More specifically, if the accessories can not be readily mounted on the weapon, they have to be provided with their specific mounting device thus decreasing the motility of the weapon user on site.
Also known in the prior art is a clamping mechanism for attaching an auxiliary apparatus to the frame of a weapon, which is further characterized in that the actual attachment or removal of the apparatus can be accomplished by a user with one hand, without using separate brackets or other mechanical components. These elements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,967 (Woodman et al.).
It is thus apparent, from the above-mentioned prior art documents, there is a lack for an aiming device which can be readily mounted on a weapon and be readily used separately, as an independent light assembly.